The new permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Quality comes as a mini-rush of gold miners are coming into the state because California declared a moratorium on dredging until it can determine whether it harms salmon.

The new Oregon regulations reduce the size of dredges used in essential salmon habitat, which covers major rivers and their tributaries in the most popular gold mining areas of southwestern and northeastern Oregon.

They also require miners on all streams to keep a log showing they check once a day that the muddy water coming out of their machines does not extend more than 300 feet downstream or overlap the plume from another dredge.

The $25 yearly permit includes a long-standing state prohibition against harming water quality in 12 federal wilderness areas established before 1972, including the Kalmiopsis Wilderness on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, where a Washington real estate developer is trying to create a gold mining resort.

The standard of no turbidity increase would effectively prohibit suction gold dredges from mining in those wilderness areas. Panning for gold is still allowed.

The revisions stem from a court challenge from both miners and conservationists to the old rule, which expired in June. Neither group was happy with the outcome.

"They are saying they believe damage is being done to the fishery, and there has never been a study done that has shown that's the actual fact," said Grants Pass miner Mike Higbee.

The new rules cut back the size on dredges in essential habitat to 16 horsepower engines and four-inches hose nozzles. They also prohibit bulldozers and backhoes from going in the water, and do not allow mining the riverbank, except along gravel bars with no vegetation.

"We have a season that keeps the dredgers out of the water when the fish are there," Higbee said. "Putting in a size restriction based on the salmon habitat area really doesn't make sense, because it is not legal to dredge during the time you would be bothering salmon anyhow."

Mining seasons are set to keep miners out of salmon streams in fall, winter and spring months when salmon and steelhead are spawning and juvenile fish are migrating to the ocean. The seasons allow mining in summer months when some adult fish are swimming upstream, and when some young fish are still in the river.

Pete Frost, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, said it would have preferred simpler and clearer rules to protect all streams, rather than only those designed by the Department of State Lands as essential to salmon survival.

"We need DEQ to give clear guidance to protect wild salmon," he said. "What we've got is a muddle of technical terms that are sometimes impractical."

Rogue Riverkeeper Leslie Adams said DEQ left enforcement to state police game officers, who have little time for it, and did not require miners to submit their logs to the state each year.

Miners holding old permits have until the end of August to apply for a new one. Recreational gold panners don't need a permit, but people using hand-operated gear, such as a rocker box, do.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said it issued 1,205 dredging permits this year, up 30 percent from 934 last year.